A bittersweet goodbye to intro2pj

Bittersweet Farms from Owens Outlook on Vimeo.

      I recently had the wonderful experience of shooting and editing this video on Bittersweet Farms. Please read Katie Schaffer's Outlook article for more info on my class' final project.

      Photojournalism was anything but boring this semester. I gained first hand knowledge from two professionals still working in the field. I learned how to use industry standard software for editing video and audio. I came out of my shell and now have no problem approaching and interviewing strangers. 

      I got to spend 14 weeks working with some of the nicest, most talented people I have ever met. I couldn't put a price on what I am walking away from this class with. 

      I am so grateful for the opportunity to continue working with the Owens Outlook next spring and I know the best is yet to come. 

Say cheese! Using strobe lights for portraiture

Cameron White dribbles the ball for an Athlete of the Week feature photo, for the Owens Outlook.       Photo by Sean Ferry

      Portraits should capture the essence of your subject. Easier said than done. I find portraits to be the most challenging and the most rewarding photography assignment. 

     

Lighting diagram for above portrait.

    Lighting always plays the biggest role in whether or not your portrait is going to turn out. Often times we have to work around the ambient light that is available, but whenever able I bring along strobe lights to ensure I can get the images I want.

      Studio strobe lights not only give us the ability to shape and modify the light in an infinite number of ways, but also allow the image to be taken without interference from ambient light. For the basketball player portrait the strobes were set at a high power level, requiring an aperture small enough to knock out all of the bright fluorescent light shining straight down onto the gym floor.

      Separating your subject from the background is a great way to make your images jump off the page. I like to accomplish this either by lighting the rim of my subject or by subtly lighting the background directly behind the person.

       Making sure the person you are photographing is comfortable is the only way to get a decent expression their face. Being able to make small talk while adjusting camera settings and lights will make your job more enjoyable for everyone involved. 

Amy Houstin poses for a headshot.  Photo by Sean Ferry

       Group shots can be a bit tricky, you want to make sure the light source is falling on all of the members of your group. Make sure nobody's face is obscured (If you can't see the camera, it can't see you). The arrangement of the group should be so everyone is around the same distance from the camera (or within your depth of field) for giant groups a high perspective is often helpful. 

      Headshots are deceivingly simple and require patience and practice to perfect. I always try to remember that the head-shoulder axis should be dynamic ( i.e. shoulders square with the main light, chin turned directly toward camera). 

      Tilting the head one way or another will change the mood of your headshot. All business or professional headshots should be taken with the top of the head slightly tilted toward the far shoulder, creating a dominant and powerful look. The head can also be tilted toward the near shoulder to create a more demure, innocent looking headshot.

      Lighting is always personal preference and I don't believe in reserving certain light patterns for certain types of faces; everyone has a unique face that deserves a unique photo.  

Owens' Womens Soccer Team with their Division XII regional award. The ladies traveled to Fla. to compete in the national tournament. Photo by Sean Ferry.

Ready, set, shoot: sports action

Shaakir Lindsey charges into a sea of blue during the second half of the Express' game against Wayne County Community College. Lindsey scored 28 points for the Express Wednesday night. Photos by Sean Ferry.

     

      Stop action photography is one of my passions. You would think sports photography would fit in nicely with that passion. Shooting sports, especially indoor sports, gives me nightmares. 

      First, you are cramped on the sidelines frantically trying to balance camera settings, composition and proper focus. Then, you live in constant fear of a stray ball destroying, or rogue player injuring themselves with, your expensive camera gear.

John Murray sinks a foul shot. Murray scored 24 points during the game.

      I went to shoot the Owens Express men's basketball team play against Wayne County Community College, on Nov. 12, 2014. The game was fast paced and exciting to watch. The VIP of the game was clearly Shaakir Lindsey with four assists and 28 points scored for the Express. After several intense battles up and down the court, the hard-working Owens men came out on top with the final score being 100 to 92.

    The most frustrating part of the night was trying to keep my frame filled while keeping my auto-focus point where I wanted critical focus to be. I know better than to ever use full matrix 3D auto focus and usually keep my selected focus point several spots to the left or right of the center point. Still, it is quite the challenge to keep that point on your main subject. More shots than not my camera focused on the stands or a player in the background. 

      The fast movement of the players running is nothing compared to the motion that the bouncing ball brings to the table. Most of the game I kept my ISO at 2000, my aperture at f/2.8 and my shutter speed between 1/800th and 1/1250th of a second. 

Shaakir Lindsey shooting a successful three-point shot.

      This exposure-combo presented an interesting issue with the composition of my shots. A lot of the action blended in too much with the background of the sparse crowd or benched players. So I decided to start panning a single player and let everything else go to blur. 

      My experience shooting finish-line photos for horse races taught me to use the central focus point and a shutter speed between 1/60th and 1/125th of a second when panning motion. 

      The center focus point is always the quickest and most accurate point for any camera. It is also human nature to place the main subject smack-dab in the middle of the viewfinder, so why not make it easy on yourself. 

      I decreased my ISO to 500, set my shutter to 1/125" and trained my center point on a running player. The problem I ran into was keeping the vertically-moving ball from blurring too much while tracking the horizontal motion of the player.

      In any form of photography we strive to tell a story with every photo we take. In sports this involves seeing more than just the straight action happening on the court or the field. Fan and coach shots help break up the monotony of run, jump and score images. Emotional reactions are another great way to add spice to your photo story.

      I can't say I enjoy shooting sports any more than I did at the beginning of my experience, but I am very happy with the images I was able to capture. 

      So get out and shoot some sporting events! You will definitely learn something about yourself and your camera, and you may even have some fun.

Head coach Dave Clarke reviews strategy with his players during a time-out in the second half.

Medical Imaging Technologies honor local professionals

  

Mercy College student Devin Graves reports on what his table agreed would be most joyful about their future careers.   Photo by Sean Ferry

      The Medical Imaging Technologies program kicked off National Radiologic Technologist week Monday with the fourth annual Imaging and Therapy Professionals Recognition event.

      According to department chair Catherine Ford, “This event is devoted to honoring outstanding individuals who work in medical imaging. Nominations are sought from those currently working in the field. A committee of peers reviews all of the submissions and selects the recipients based on appropriate criteria.”

      The event was organized in a way that allows students time to network with their future peers. Students, teachers and staff mingled with area professionals while enjoying the music of radiologist Dr. Deb Achinger and her band Bullfrog Underground. Guests enjoyed beverages and a buffet of appetizers prepared by AVI Foodsytems.

Dawn Merryman accepts her award for clinical excellence.

      Once everyone had their fill of food, drink and conversation, the night’s keynote speaker was introduced. Denise Moore obtained her bachelor's degree and master's of science from the University of Dayton. She's worked at Sinclair Community College since 1973.

      Moore’s passion for teaching became evident when all guests were asked to group together by table and discuss what they found most joyful about their jobs. After a short musical intermission, Moore proceeded to call on each table to report their findings.

      Mercy College student Devin Graves spoke for his table. “The best thing about being in the hospital is walking into a room where the patient's not feeling well, doing your job right and making their day a little better. And that helps you get through your day.”

      Moore continued her speech, explaining that National Radiologic Technologist week started in 1979. The purpose is to promote the work of medical imaging professionals to the public and to the healthcare industry as a whole.

      The night concluded with award presentations and a few speeches from recipients. Seven different award categories were recognized:

• Imaging and Therapy Clinical Excellence Award (Dawn Merryman)
• Educator Award (Inez Gorsuch)
• Leadership Award (Debra Sepanski)
• Rising Star Award (Melissa Trombly)
• Lifetime Achievement (Carol Ghareeb)
• Physician in Medical Imaging and Therapy Award (Dr. Robin Shermis)
• Imaging and Therapy Sales/Applications Specialist Award (Christopher Fry)

      After receiving his award, Dr. Shermis shared some advice for students. “Just know that it’s worth the effort, the time, the struggle. Maybe one day you will be up here and be as proud as I am,” Dr. Shermis said.

Deb Brady (left) leads the buffet line as the event begins. Food was prepared by AVI Foodsystem and included items such as quesadillas, egg rolls, and cheese-stuffed mushrooms. Photo by Sean Ferry

Know your camera. Control your lighting. Compose your shot.

Three thistles in directional light to compliment the thorny shape and bring out the deep purple and green colors of the plant. A large aperture of f/5.6 was used to highlight the center thistle with selective focus. Photo by Sean Ferry.

      The first step for any photographer hoping to improve their work is understanding what your camera controls do and how changing them will effect your final image. The next element to understand is how to work the quality of light falling on the scene to highlight and represent your subject in the best possible way. Then, before releasing the shutter, the photograph needs to be framed with a pleasing composition that will leave an impression on the viewer. 

     Basic camera controls to understand are: shutter speed, aperture, ISO and focal length. 
    Shutter speed is used to show blurred or panned motion, and stopped action. Shutter speed also comes into play when balancing ambient light with light emitted from a flash. 

A bottle of tequila set against a bright white background. Photo by Sean Ferry

      Aperture allows control over depth of field. Larger apertures produce narrow depth of field and work to blur foreground and background areas. Most landscape photographs follow the rule of thirds, placing an object of interest in the fore, middle and background, a smaller aperture is then used to widen the depth of field to show all elements in sharp focus. 

      ISO controls the sensitivity of the camera's sensor to light. In low light situations or when a fast shutter speed or small aperture is needed, a higher ISO is chosen. 

      The focal length of the lens will effect depth of field much like the aperture. A long lens, like a 300mm, will produce very narrow areas of focus. While a super-wide fish-eye lens rarely needs to be focused at all, since the depth of field is so wide.  Another factor of focal length is distortion of the image. The closer you get to your subject the more the barrel distortion becomes apparent. Long lenses only show a narrow field of view, requiring you to be further from your subject and, therefore, produce less distortion, making it the lens of choice for portraits. 
      I wish more people understood that cell phone cameras have wide angle lenses which cause you to hold the camera very close to your face to take a selfie (no, your nose isn't that big).

      In Greek photography means writing with light, and the type of light you choose to write with will make or break your image. Sometimes, like when in a studio, we have total control over the quality, direction and color of the light we choose to illuminate our subjects. Other times, like showing up to cover an event without a flash, we just have to make do. Light can be diffused and soft, spreading out to soften shadows and producing less saturated color. Hard directional light tends to accentuate texture and deepen colors, while producing clear definition between highlight and shadow. 

       Composition can be as complicated or as simple as you make it. In my top photo of thistles I chose to balance near identical objects simply by including three of them in frame and then highlighting one of them by using a narrow depth of field. 
      The next photo of a bottle and glass of tequila is meant to highlight the product. The subjects need to be separated from the bright white background so I used black cards to produce black reflections along the edges of the bottle and glass. 
      My final image is architectural in nature and includes many repeated shapes and interesting lines to capture the eye's attention.

The CFPA building is illuminated by an unobstructed sun, the hard light saturates the green grass and blue sky. The lines of the building add to the graphic quality of the image and a small aperture of f/14 ensures that everything in the photo is sharp. Photo by Sean Ferry

Cell phone cameras take the world by storm

   Cell phones allow us to be forever connected. With the advent of the camera phone we can now see something, shoot it and share it with the world faster than ever before. This fast-paced interconnected world is saturated with digital images. From Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, Tumblr and the like, a constant stream of photos are being shared.

   News organizations have been slow to integrate cellphone photography into their operations, but as technology advances and cameras get smaller and better surely we will see future photojournalist carrying a single hand-held device that does the work of a camera, laptop and phone.

The School of Nursing's location on the second floor of Herritage Hall opened in 2010.

    Some photojournalists are doing it already, Ben Lowy is an adamant supporter of cell phone photography and has had work featured in The Newyorker, Newsweek, Time and The New York Times. I think he put it best when he said:  "Small mobile phone cameras are innocuous and enable a far greater intimacy with a subject... allowed me to transmit images from the field updating my blog- no middle man, no publisher." (link)

   I found these aspects of cell phone photography to hold true during a recent tour of the registered nurse training lab at Owens Community College. I was able to take photos quickly and painlessly without getting that deer-in-headlights look that is so common when photographing people.

   Of course the limitations are still there, with almost all current cameras in cell phones you have no control over the iso, aperture and shutterspeed along with very limited control over focus. This is the trade off for having a camera ready for action in a split second. But, if the pace of technological progress of the 21st century continues, we should see huge advancements in camera phone tech in the upcoming years. It will be interesting to see how this changes the profession of photojournalism. 

Patricia Zenner demonstrates the use of one of the school's Alaris IV infusion pumps. Zenner is the coordinator of the Nursing Skills Lab at Owens Community College where students work in a clinical environment with various interactive and anatomically correct models of humans.

   

Creating clear, concise captions with style

An anti-government protestor, showers under water splashed from a broken water pipe, near the parliament building where he and others are camping, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Monday, Sept. 22, 2014. Anti-government demonstrators led by opposition politicians Khan and Muslim cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri converged on the capital in mid-August, demanding Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's ouster over alleged fraud in last year's election. Sharif told the parliament that protestors have damaged the image of Pakistan in the world and also caused huge economic losses in the country.   (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

   

    The power of photography works hand in hand with print media, not only as a lure of prospective readers, but by allowing strong emotional connections to be formed between reader and content. The photo alone is almost never enough for this to happen, the context of the picture must be explained. 
    Sure, the article itself can contain enough contextual information to explain the image, but I doubt many news photos are interesting enough to warrant that level of involvement from the average reader. So by placing a caption under the photo we empower the photo to speak to the reader. 

   I love scanning through photographs in magazines like National Geographic and online news sites like Reddit, but after finding an interesting photo the first thing I do is read what's under it. 
    It's clear that the caption has always played an important role in the media industry, so it's not surprising there is a standard guide to styling the language of them. 

   The style used by most news organizations and journalist is published and updated by the Associated Press. The AP Stylebook is the go-to guide for any punctuation, grammar or spelling issues that might come up while writing captions.

   I found that most captions follow a three sentence template:

• The first sentence is in the present tense and covers information such as who, what, where, and when.
• The second sentence is in the past tense and covers any additional info.
• The third sentence, if used, adds more additional information, usually in the form of a quote from somebody in or relevant to the photo.